Gene-Splice
by Myra the Sark
Summary: (Basically it's an x-over with Bolt, but doesn't have anything to do with it besides the "special abilities" our favorite five get from a psycho scientist.) As their abilities unfold, Core-Tech find themselves the number-1 targets of all their enemies, each wanting to control their powers. All they want is to live as normally as they can. That doesn't seem possible anymore, sadly.
1. Chapter I

At long last, his research was complete. Lars Kyron smirked to himself as he prepped for the experiment. The experiment involved re-writing the genes of various creatures to bring out amazing effects…in this case, humans. The specifics of the project involved altering the subject's genetic make-up to improve various physical, mental and psychological effects, essentially giving him or her "super-powers." For almost ten years, he had been collecting some of the most advanced technology he could, from various places around the world—recently he'd "acquired" some equipment from STORM, which he needed for the finishing touches.  
He'd already tried it on a coyote he'd caught in a meager trap—it worked to perfection. One freaky side-effect was that the coyote could now speak perfect English, but a muzzle had fixed that.

He'd chanced upon some perfect test-subjects while he was on his way to his hidden lab that morning—five traveling teens.

It had been a simple trick to knock them unconscious—five quick tranquilizer darts. Most people didn't carry tranquilizers on them, but Lars wasn't a normal person. Best of all, the drug he used in the darts would muddle their recent memories, so he could tell them whatever he wanted on how they got there in the first place, and they'd believe him.

After sealing the control room off, he pressed a large red button marked "Isolation." An alarm started blaring, and all the doors in the room sealed, the room's pressure lowering slightly. Lars _was not_ going to risk a local disaster if his machine failed—he was dealing with dangerous radiation, and he knew it well. He had to take every precaution in the book and another—if any dangerous substances leaked, the government would be all over him, and his dream would be ruined.

He calibrated the machine exactly the way his research suggested, and then started typing away at a computer, spending several minutes fine-tuning the machine's calibration. It was a good thing the teens were all still unconscious—they'd probably freak out if they knew what was about to happen to them.

At last Lars threw the final switch, beginning the process. Almost instantly, there was a flash of light inside of what he called the Sequencing Chamber, and a strange light filtered in the five clear chambers that contained his test subjects. He kept a hawk's-eye on the several computer screens that were displaying vital states about the chambers. **Energy **and **Radiation** levels spiked sharply, but hovered well below the danger levels for the machine.

He glanced at five other monitors, which were reserved for monitoring his subjects' vital signs. As they became more and more exposed to the controlled radiation and energy, the signs became more erratic, monitors reporting a few bodily functions starting to go haywire…but that was expected. The five test-subjects were being altered to their very cores, their genetic make-up being completely rewritten. Pretty soon, he'd finally have his super-weapons.

* * *

When Chase regained consciousness, the first thing he was aware of was that he felt completely and totally _weird_. Weird and wrong.

He looked around—he was in a room with silvery-white walls. There was a table by the wall, which had five glasses of water. Chase went over and took a sip from one, before realizing the others were also in the room, unconscious as well. "Guys?" he asked nervously.

He heard Bren groan, and sit up, his glasses lopsided on his face. "Where are we?" he asked groggily, looking around.

"No idea," Chase replied, even as Jinja and Dax both sat up as well.

The latter rubbed the back of his head. "What the krag happened?" he asked.

"Yeah, my head feels all weird," Jinja added.

Finally Beyal sat up as well. All he said was "Something is not right."

Then the door opened, allowing a man with dark-brown hair and dark-green eyes wearing black pants and a lab coat over a gray shirt to walk in. "Ah, you're awake," he said, smiling.

Chase's eyes narrowed a little. Something about that guy seemed…_off_. "Who are you?" the raven-haired teen asked.

"My name is Lars—Professor Lars Kyron. I found you five passed out by the road on my way here, so I brought you along. What're your names?"

The story didn't seem that plausible to Chase for some reason but his memory was all muddled—he couldn't remember anything from the last past hour after passing through Islyn Town…

"Thanks for doing that," Jinja said, giving a reproving look to Chase for not saying as such—while thinking, he'd missed that the others had introduced themselves, and she had introduced him while he was spacing out.

"It's nothing. Here, I'll get some food for you. I'll be right back." Lars left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Jinja immediately said, "What's your problem?"

"Nothing," Chase said, putting his hands up in self-defense. "I just feel…off."

"I second that emotion," Bren agreed.

"Ditto to that," Dax put in. "When're we gonna get out of here?"

Chase thought it over. If what Lars had told them was true, maybe they got some sort of bug from something…it'd be bad if they passed out on another road and any of their enemies happened across them. "I guess we'll wait for a few days. Just in case we might be sick or something."

"Sounds like a plan," Jinja agreed.

Beyal, however, was silent.

* * *

Lars watched them through the one-way window, while reading over the report.

Experiment No: ALT-161, ALT-162, ALT-163, ALT-164, ALT-165

Name: Chase, Bren, Jinja, Beyal, Dax

Results for Genetic Sequence Number: E-02

_**Basic Functions**_

_**Subjects' basic functions were erratic and unstable during alteration sequence, but wireless monitoring has seen them balance back to normal levels, although are still mildly erratic. Subjects' heartbeats and blood pressures are slightly elevated, to account for the increased demands the body will face. Subjects' basic vital function should balance further over the next 2-10 days.**_

_**Enhancements**_

_**Brain & Nervous System: Subjects have developed a large increase in neural activity. Neural speed and efficiency has increased by over 150%, with an extensive expansion in the number of neural pathways through the brain.**_

_**Skeletal Structure: Subject's skeletal structure has seen an impressive strengthening. Skeletal strength and impact resistance increased by approximately 100%, with no increase in bone mass. Expected After-Effects - Drastically increased strength, and resistance to various impacts.**_

_**Muscular Structure: Subjects' muscular structures have seen an efficiency increase of over 200%, with very little increase in volume or mass. Expected After-Effects: In conjunction with skeletal improvements, subjects' strength and resistance to harm will have been increased significantly, although exact figures are difficult to calculate.**_

_**Vocal Structure: Subjects' vocal structure have seen a controlled alteration. Subjects may continue to vocalize normally, but can, at will, create a cascading vocal effect that allows it to enhance their vocal range if necessary. Expected After-Effects - Up to 300% increase in vocal range and strength.**_

_**Eye Structure: Subjects' optic nerves have been enhanced, in line with the neural improvements. Subjects' retinas have been altered to allow them to act as super-concentrated mirrors. Expected After-Effects: Increased vision in sharpness, clarity, and focus. Retina mirrors have the ability to focus light into a super intense beam of light, strength expected to be identical to that of a cutting laser.**_

_**Ill-Effects**_

_**No serious ill effects have been detected at present, but genetic alteration of any sort has the possibility of disastrous, and unpredictable, side-effects.**_

_**Possible ill-effects include:**_

_**RE-ADJUSTMENT FAIL - Failure to re-adjust could result in genetic rejection and death.**_

_**EFFECT GROWTH – Subjects' enhancements will continue to manifest and grow a long amount of time after the procedure. This is expected to lapse within 24 hours, but theoretically could go on indefinitely. Uncontrolled growth could lead to excessive enhancements, which the body would not be able to cope with. Death would most likely result.**_

_**Conclusion**_

_**Experiment is successful.**_

Lars grinned—the subjects had been unconscious for a full day after the experiment. _Perfect…now I just need to fine-tune them a bit…and then the world will be mine!_ Yes, there were huge risks still, but if these ones died before his dream was realized, he'd just repeat it.


	2. Chapter II

Three days went by…and the weird-wrong feeling that the five of Core-Tech had been feeling had not gone away. If anything, it got worse. Bren felt like he was being pricked multiple times by little pins, and his glasses had been bugging out for some reason. And none of them had passed out suddenly again.

It was also getting increasingly harder to sleep…because they kept hearing voices from somewhere, sounding like they were right out in the hall. Bren also swore he was hearing machinery beeping—Lars hadn't given any of their things back. Chase was sure he had their cores as well. And what Chase had been saying, that he didn't trust Lars…suddenly Bren found that he didn't trust the man either. He was acting a little _too_ nice to them…like he knew something about them that they didn't.

Dax groaned. "Why won't Green-Eyes let us out of this bleezin' room?" he asked, starting towards the door.

"Lars said that he uses radioactive stuff in his experiments," Jinja reasoned. "He's just trying to protect us."

"Wouldn't he have gotten us out of here then?" Chase asked. The ginger-haired girl was effectively silenced by that. Beyal, meanwhile, was meditating, as usual. Something seemed to be on his mind.

Then again, Bren had something on his mind too. Lately he felt like there was some sort of…presence…in his mind. He didn't really know what it was—all he knew was that there was some sort of barrier in his own mind keeping it away from him. And some part of him wanted to reach out to that presence, and let it take over. Another part said not to. Bren didn't know which to listen to.

Dax had paused at the door, trying to look through the crack in the side of it. He grabbed onto the doorknob. "Maybe it's not locked," he muttered, and yanked on it—

And it came off its hinges entirely. He went stiff in surprise. "Dax?!" Jinja exclaimed simultaneously with Chase, getting Beyal to look up.

"How'd you do that?" Bren asked, wide-eyed.

"Uh…no idea?" Honestly, Dax sounded mystified.

Chase quickly took charge. "C'mon guys, we're outta here. Let's go find our cores."

They went into the hall—it was vacant. They paused and looked into a few rooms. Most were empty, but one…one had a weird-looking door, and the walls inside looked super-reinforced…and there was only one coyote inside of it with typical amber eyes and light yellowish-gray fur, walking in circles in a strange manner. A humanlike manner. It was also wearing a muzzle.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had opened the door—it was unlocked. The coyote looked up sharply, trotting over and sniffing at him. Naturally, he went completely rigid, expecting it to attack him. The others looked apprehensive as well. Then some weird impulse made him take the muzzle off of the coyote.

Then, to their utmost shock, the coyote shook itself, and _said_, "Thanks. So the whitecoat did something to you, too?" If Bren hadn't known it was a coyote, he'd think it was a girl their age.

They were silent, staring. She snorted, scratching one ear. "What, see a jackalope or something?"

"You…just _talked_," Jinja said slowly.

"What of it?"

"Coyotes don't talk," Dax said flatly, eyes wide.

"Well, I'm special. And by the smell of it, you five are too."

Cue confusion. "What do you mean?" Chase asked, still looking a bit weird—Bren felt weird, and not the wrong-weird—they were talking to a _coyote_, for crying out loud!

"Well…you just smell different. Not like the other humans here," the coyote replied. "What the whitecoat did to me, I'm not sure. I know I can speak human, though."

Bren looked around. He thought he heard footsteps…

The coyote's fur ruffled. "Someone's coming. We better hide—and close the door!"

They did as such, running down the hall and hiding in the next room they came to—which was full of computers, and even had the _Core-Tablet_ and _their_ _cores_ on a table. They immediately reclaimed their things, and Bren turned the Core-Tablet on.

"Hey Bren?" Chase started. "Why don't you download some stuff from these computers? I don't trust Lars…"

"Sure thing. Just give me a minute…"

Meanwhile, Beyal was speaking with the coyote. "Mountains?" she repeated. "I have a cousin who's up in the mountains—he's a halfer."

"…halfer?" Beyal repeated.

"You know, half-and-half. His pa's a wolf."

"Done!" Bren announced, and they went into the hall—to see Lars.

"Oh dear," the scientist said languidly, immediately setting off a few warning bells in Bren's head. "You weren't supposed to be looking at those files. Or…to be speaking with the mutt there."

"Mutt?" the coyote repeated, looking offended. "Why I oughta…!"

Lars then raised a gun of some kind, making all of them stiffen. Chase took out Lock's core. "That reminds me," the scientist began. "I'm curious—what are those, anyways?"

"You really think we'd tell you?" Chase retorted. "Who are you, really?"

"I've told you already—I'm a scientist studying different forms radiation…and how it affects living things," Lars replied, a weird glint in his eyes.

Then Bren's mind put two and two together—when they'd all felt so wrong-weird when they woke up, how everything was all fuzzy…

"You did something to us!" Jinja exclaimed, looking outraged.

"A simple experiment. I was hoping I'd finally have what I needed…"

"And we don't need to hear your yapping anymore!" Dax interrupted, taking a core out himself. "Boost, launch!"

The wolf-cougar materialized in a flash of light. "Ooh, fancy!" the coyote said, tail wagging a bit.

Lars took one look at the Monsuno and bolted the other way down the hall, flipping a switch as he did—and an alarm began blaring.

"Ah krag," Chase muttered. "C'mon guys, let's scram!"

* * *

Getting out of the lab was pretty easy…except for the fact that it was underground. So it took quite a bit of running…and the weird part was, Jinja had made note that all of them, even Bren, were running way faster than normal. And she wasn't feeling tired one bit. Dax had to call Boost back into its core, of course.

And Bren spun Neo-Quickforce out almost immediately when they were outside, Chase following up with Evo—and then they were _gone_.

"This is awesome!" their coyote-friend shouted, tail moving in a blur and sticking her tongue out. "Now I know what the buzzards feel like!"

Bren looked at the Core-Tablet, and immediately gained a look of worry. "Uh, we really shouldn't be flying on the Monsunos!" he shouted. "There's a STORM base nearby!"

"Alright," Chase said. "We'll walk for a while, then."

So they did. For about two hours with nothing exciting happening. Once in a while the coyote (Chase realized they'd need to come up with a name for her) would go and sniff at something, but she caught up quickly. It seemed to be a silent decision that she'd be tagging along.

Chase and the others all paused when they hit a road…but Beyal kept walking. "Uh, snowflake?" the coyote said, looking to the right, eyes bugging in terror. "You better come back here!"

Beyal glanced first at the coyote, and then followed her gaze—and went stiff in fear. Why?

There was a truck speeding towards him, even as the driver hit the brakes and desperately tried to stop the vehicle in time. The only thing that ran through the monk's mind was that it was not going to stop in time—it was going to hit him.

And the truck, still doing at least thirty miles an hour, screeched across those final yards, Beyal simply closed his eyes and retreated into his mind, praying that it would be over quickly, as he heard the others cry out to him…

* * *

"_Beyal_!" Jinja shouted, fearing for the worst to happen…

But when the truck collided with the white-haired controller, the impossible happened. With an almighty crash, the truck that had been going at twenty-five miles hit Beyal…and stopped. The entire front end of the vehicle caved in, crumpling spectacularly, little pieces of it flying away. The back end of the car lifted almost two feet into the air, determined to keep moving, before it eventually gave in and thumped back to the ground. The truck buckled slightly with the force of the impact, having come to a stop so suddenly. But Jinja not notice any of this—her focus was entirely on Beyal.

The white-haired teen, for his part, had been blasted back away from the car, flying for over ten yards, before crashing to the ground once more, rolling several times before stopping, not moving. Despite the horrific spectacle he had been a victim of, there was no sign of any physical injury to his body. There were no cuts, no bruises, and no blood. As amazed-yet-confused as she was, her panic overwhelmed it. "Beyal? _Beyal_?" she shouted desperately, shaking him repeatedly.

He stirred slightly, forcing his eyes to open slightly, and she sighed in relief. "What…happened?" he asked as the others came up.

"Monkfish, you just got hit by a truck," Dax said, looking just as puzzled that Beyal was perfectly alright, albeit dazed.

Beyal stared at the truck, his eyes widening a great amount as he realized _he_ somehow did that. The driver, meanwhile, was in a state of shock—the airbag had been deployed, and his seatbelt had been on, so he was alright.

Quickly Chase grabbed him by the arm and they started towards the other end of the road before any other vehicles came along.

When they were safely out of sight and earshot of anyone by the road, Chase asked, "What was _that_, Beyal?"

"I do not know…" he replied. Then he looked up. "But I do believe destiny has shined her light upon us!" (**Cue anime-style sweatdrop**)

"Yeah…" Jinja said. "I'm thinking it's whatever Mr. Freaky did to us."

"Well, the whitecoat's always doing weird things to other things. Like, I saw him bring a mouse in that weird dark-room once…it didn't come out. Few hours later, he brought _me_ in there, and after that…well, I suddenly found myself able to speak human. And able to see color."

"Uh…what did this 'dark-room' look like?" Chase asked.

"Well, it had these five boxes of sort I could see through. The whitecoat put me in one, and then went into a room with a see-through wall and pressed a few buttons, and then I heard this really loud annoying sound, like the one we heard when we were tailing it—but different.

"Then there was this weird light in my box, and _bam_—I suddenly saw that it was yellow. Didn't know it at the time, though. After he took me out, I realized I could talk…and then he stuck that muzzle on me and locked me in that room."

Chase looked thoughtful. "Maybe he brought us in there while we were unconscious or something…" He seemed to remember something. "B, didn't you download a bunch of files from Lars's computers?"

"Yeah, I did!" Bren immediately turned the Core-Tablet on, and quickly found the files. The others crowded around—even the coyote, though she couldn't read.

As they read the file over, all five of them felt a cold feeling come over them. They knew one thing for sure—things would never be the same again.


	3. Chapter III

**First time using Klipse with no official lines. So he didn't get much dialogue. ~Myra  
**

* * *

"Holy _krag_," Chase said finally, voicing all their thoughts.

"Ditto to that," Dax agreed, an eye twitching a bit. "He made lab-rats out of us!"

"L-Let's just see what exactly he did to us, alright?" Chase suggested shakily. Bren nodded, and scrolled down a bit. He skimmed it. "Enhanced strengthen, durability…" Another interesting one was the section labeled "Vocal Structure". _I wonder what that means…?_

Then they hit the "Eye Structure" part. Chase actually had to read it five times in order for it to sink in. "So…what's that supposed to mean?" Jinja asked, staring.

"I—don't know," Chase said.

"**_Ability to focus light into a super intense beam of light, strength expected to be identical to that of a cutting laser"_** was the difficult-to-comprehend part.

Bren seemed to be focused on a different part of that section. He frowned a bit, and took his glasses off, and blinked a few times. Chase suddenly had a suspicion—which was proved when his friend grinned widely.

Then they saw the "Ill-Effects" part. Chase's eyes went wide as he paled. Bren quickly said, "We don't have to worry about that _re-adjust_ one—it's been forty-eight hours already. It's the growth-effect one I'm worried about…"

"Can we just drop it?" Jinja said quickly. "I don't wanna think about it."

Chase was silent. Then he said, "B? I need you to e-mail a copy of that file to my dad."

The others all stared at him. "You sure you don't wanna tell the doc yourself?" Dax asked.

"I don't know _how_ to explain it."

"That's reasonable," Bren said, doing as such. "Done."

Something else struck Chase, and he looked at the coyote. "Do you have a name?"

She stared at him. "Uh…my mom called me something, but I don't have any ideas on how to translate it to human…"

"Then we'll have to give you a name." The raven-haired teen glanced around, and his eyes quickly fell on the color of the coyote's fur, and the type of ground they were on. "How does Sandy sound?"

"Sandy?" she repeated, tilting her head to one side. Her tail wagged slightly. "Sure."

"Sandy it is." He paused. "So…now what?"

"I got an idea," Dax said, smirking a bit. "Let's see if Kyron's papers were on the mark."

"Well, we know the strength part is already," Bren said, glancing at Beyal.

"I'll try the vocal one!" Sandy barked, jumping up and turning to look at a rock. "You guys better cover your ears, just in case."

They did as such…and then Sandy barked. VERY LOUDLY. Even though they had their ears covered, it was still loud.

Not to mention, the rock was blasted into bits by the soundwaves. "O-kay…" Chase started. "That's officially for emergencies only. "

"Okay," Sandy agreed, staring at what she'd done.

"Alright, then what about the eye thing?" Bren asked.

"I'll give it a go," Dax immediately stated.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Jinja asked.

"Easy! I bet if I just stare at something really hard—"

He actually did figure it out—two small beams of yellowish light. Of course he put two holes in the tree he was staring at, though.

"Okay, that's another one we have to be careful with," Chase said in a surprisingly-calm voice.

"Yes," Beyal agreed. "Although I do not understand why Dax had to injure the tree."

"Not my fault!" the Lowlander defended.

"Uh, actually it is," Sandy said.

"Shut up mutt."

"Call me that again and I'll bite one of your fingers off."

Chase went stiff then. "Hang on. I hear something." He started walking in the general direction he was hearing an engine from.

He eventually reached a ledge, and the others were behind him. They immediately saw the lone vehicle, which looked like it was transporting something. They also saw the Eklipse symbol on it. "I take it that thing's transporting Monsuno Essence," Jinja said.

"I bet so too," Chase said, grinning a bit. "Let's get it!"

The five teens and coyote slid down the ledge, running in front of the vehicle. Good thing they didn't have to worry about being injured…right?

The vehicle skidded to a halt—and a familiar voice soon said, "Come to play, Baby Suno?"

Chase froze. _I'm such an idiot! _he thought, _especially _when he saw two other familiar figures: Klipse and Hargrave, of course.

"To think that you would fall for such a simple trick," Klipse said. "Pathetic." The whole of DarkSpin followed out as well.

Chase knew they were outnumbered. But they'd have to fight their way out of this. "Sandy, keep quiet," Chase muttered. She nodded, staring intently at their opponents.

Although she did, after wrinkling her nose a bit, say quietly, "That lady put too much perfume on. And it smells awful."

The lineup was as such—Lock, Neo-Quickforce, Whipper, Glowblade, and Boost against Poisonwing, Spiderwolf, Moonfire, Spikebat, Twinsting (a new one), and Backslash.

Needless to say, things got foul very quickly. Glowblade had been ganged up on by Spiderwolf and Moonfire, while Boost was trying in vain to attack Spikebat.

Poisonwing had a constricting hold on Whipper, and Twinsting continuously attacked Neo-Quickforce, who could only do as much as to block.

It was Lock against Backslash, as usual. "Jaw of Light!" Chase yelled.

Lock shot a beam of energy at Backslash—but the wolf-bear dodged it. "Shock Shriek!" Klipse shouted in retaliation—direct hit. Before Chase could tell Lock to attack again, Poisonwing suddenly dropped on it from above, biting—Whipper had been taken down.

Glowblade had gone down as well—and neither Boost nor Neo-Quickforce lasted long after that. Chase grit his teeth. _All our Monsunos are a bit sluggish…I bet Lars did something!_

"Backslash, finish him!" Klipse ordered. Chase looked up—just in time to see Backslash lunging at _him_, ready to strike.

He had no time to run. All he could do was close his eyes and wait for it—he heard fabric tearing and felt a hard blow to his side, which sent him flying into a tree, dazing him…but no pain whatsoever fired up.

He shakily stood, shaking his head before looking up. His friends were staring wide-eyed—the emotion visible was a weird mixture of horror, shock, and relief.

As for their enemies: Argius was staring stupidly, Medea was wide-eyed and speechless, Latinus and Telegonus were both open-mouthed, and Hargrave said "Well that's strange," with a confused expression. Klipse, meanwhile, shouted, "How are you still alive?!"

Chase risked a glance down—his shirt and jacket were pretty much destroyed on his right side, but there was no single marking on his skin. _Thank you enhanced durability! _"Long story," he said. "Lock, return!" His Monsuno did as such. Then he said, "Sandy, distraction!"

"Superbark?" she asked in a hopeful tone with her tail wagging, getting dumbfounded stares.

"Yes, superbark." He and the others immediately covered their ears and ran back a few feet before Sandy unleashed her secret weapon.

The resulting soundwaves actually caused the Monsunos to let out pained cries and knocked their controllers back. Taking advantage the six of them dashed away as fast as they could. Which was very fast.

* * *

They finally stopped in a clearing, only having to take a half-minute to catch their breath.

"Well, things just got a lot more complicated," Jinja said finally.

Chase nodded in agreement. Dax, meanwhile, said, "Did you _see_ the looks on their faces?"

"Yeah!" Bren added. "Even the Monsunos looked confused. Especially Backslash!"

"You guys are idiots!" Jinja shouted. "Do you have any idea how hard it's gonna get for us since they know?"

"Jinja does have a point," Beyal said.

"Yeah," Chase agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if Klipse wants to use _us_ for weapons now. Not to mention…" He glanced down. "I need a new shirt….and jacket." He scowled a bit at that part.

* * *

Klipse paced back and forth. "It doesn't make any sense…" He mused. "How did that brat not even have a single scratch?"

"Perhaps someone did a little _work_ on them?" Hargrave suggested.

The bald man froze. _Of course!_ Now came the matter of _who_.

Definitely not Charlemagne—she couldn't even catch the damn kids.

Jeredy would never do that to his own son.

Tallis had no access to that kind of technology.

Which left only one person. _Lars Kyron…it' s about time you showed your face again_.


	4. Chapter IV

Jeredy read the file over for the fiftieth time, failing to hear the door open. He knew exactly who made the file as well. _I don't understand…why would Lars perform such a dangerous experiment? And on _kids_…? _A few moments later, he mentally scoffed at himself. _Weapons, of course…_

Chase's voice made him jump. "Dad, what are you…?"

"Nothing, son. I'm just…" He trailed off. "What happened?"

"Uh…Backslash happened. Klipse knows about part of it."

"You aren't hurt, are you?!"

"No…didn't you read about the _enhanced durability _part?"

Jeredy paused. _Good point._ "We'll talk about that later. For now…" He scrolled down in the file. "I'm more worried about this here." He gestured to "Effect Growth" under "Ill-Effects."

"So are we," Chase said.

"Actually…if you don't mind, I'd like to do a few tests…is that alright?"

"I'm fine with it," an unfamiliar voice said.

Jeredy went stiff and glanced around. Then Chase said, "That's right…dad, this is Sandy." Jeredy looked to where Chase was pointing, and started slightly when he saw the coyote.

"Pleasure to meet you," it—she—said. She sniffed. "I can tell you two're related."

It took a few moments for Jeredy to even manage a nod.

* * *

"So what do you want me to do?" Jinja asked.

"I just want to see how this 'laser' of yours works against this steel panel here. We already know it can cut through organic materials—"

"—but we don't know about inorganic," she finished, now seeing a little sense in it. "Alright."

The ginger-haired girl stared hard at the sheet of metal. _Now how did Dax do it?_

No sooner did she think that did she hear Jeredy yelp in surprise, and she saw two holes in the metal, the area around it a little melted. _Okay. I guess…we just have to stare at it really hard._

* * *

"Wait, what?" Jeredy asked, not understanding what Dax had just said.

"Monkfish would've gotten totaled by a truck," the Lowlander repeated. "Except _he_ totaled _it_."

"As in, the whole front caved in on itself," Bren clarified, glancing sideways at Beyal, who wasn't meeting anyone's eyes in an embarrassed manner.

* * *

Chase picked up the block with ease. "So, why'd you want me to pick this up?" he asked. He took note of his father's expression. "What?"

"That's solid lead," the scientist said flatly. "It weighs fifty pounds." Chase stared first at him, then at the block—which felt about the same weight as his belt-clip. "It seems the improvements were on the mark…although there's no way of telling about the first one yet. I'll have to ask Sandy about the vocal one…"

"Yeah," Chase agreed, still wide-eyed—not hearing the last part. "I guess so."

* * *

"So…along with talking, you can see color?" Jeredy asked Sandy, although he felt weird about it.

"Yep," she said. "I have all the same abilities, too."

"Alright, so could you demonstrate the vocal—"

"That wouldn't be a good idea," Jinja interrupted quickly, getting a weird look from Jeredy.

"Why?"

"She can shatter a large boulder with a bark," Bren said. "And knock someone backwards."

"…oh."

* * *

Lastly, he had gathered energy readings from all six of them. "And the point of this was…?" Dax asked dubiously.

"I want to see the rate of which your abilities are developing," Jeredy replied.

"So we'll know if it's going too fast," Bren said.

"Exactly. I'll run another tomorrow, too."

"Alright," Chase said. He paused. "Hey dad…does the name 'Lars Kyron' ring any bells?"

Jeredy froze before answering. "Yes, it does…unfortunately."

"You know that freak?" Jinja asked.

Jeredy nodded. "I know him from a long time ago. Lars was always a little obsessive with his research, which was on radiation of all forms…ionizing radiation in particular, which is how he gave you those powers." The others were quiet, and the scientist looked at them before adding, "I want you all be _very _careful with those powers. It's bad enough that Klipse knows about them, but if Charlemagne catches any hint of it…well, you can guess."

"We'd be on the run 24/7," Dax said.

"Exactly."

"I don't wanna know what those Forge guys would do with us either," Jinja put in.

Jeredy nodded. "Speaking of, I was recently tipped off that there's yet another bomb out there."

"Oh goodie," Dax muttered sarcastically.

"Except this one's a bit different." Jeredy brought up an image of a small rocket. "They're trying to use STORM to their advantage again—same as last time. Except this time the bomb's in the form of a warhead…something I never designed."

"So we have to stop the rocket," Chase guessed. "Or should I call it a missile?"

"Call it a missile. It's even the same launch site. I wouldn't be surprised if they're being more careful this time, though."

"That's a little obvious," Jinja said.

"Well…in any case, I also figured out what was wrong with your Monsunos. Lars somehow put inhibitors of some kind on them-he probably ran a few experiments of his own on them."

"Figures," Dax muttered.

"You fixed them, right?" Chase asked.

"I did. Don't worry about it—and whatever you do, _don't_ use any of your powers."

* * *

It was _almost_ the same as last time. There was indeed a distraction battle going on at the front gate—the same three Punk-Monks as last time, and Trey was there again…except instead of an Elite, there was Charlemagne. It was a three-on-two battle—Vicegrip, Turbine, and Staticjolt against Riccoshot and Driftblade.

"I'll bet you Drezz is inside," Jinja growled.

"Probably," Chase agreed. "Alright, here's the plan: Jin, I want you, Bren, and Dax to head down there and clean up the mess at the front gate. Beyal, Sandy, you're both with me."

"Piece of cake," Dax said.

"Can I superbark 'em?" Sandy asked.

"No!" Chase said firmly. "You heard what my dad said—no using our powers."

"Right…"

* * *

"Mind if we join the party?" Dax asked as he and the other two ran into the clearing.

Taking the glares they got from both other sides as answers, the three of Core-Tech spun out Boost, Neo-Quickforce, and Whipper.

* * *

"Over there!" Sandy exclaimed while running towards a building…as a "STORM Elite" came out. He froze upon seeing the snarling coyote, and the two teens behind her. Then he smirked a bit. "Long time no see, Chase Suno," he said. It was indeed Drezz.

"Same to you," Chase said flatly. "Hand over the warhead."

"A bit late for that. The rocket's about to launch, and ten minutes after that it'll be bye-bye Ancelstierre." Chase's eyes widened—Ancelstierre was the capital of Northern Alappia. Almost as big as Westward City.

"Beyal, Sandy, distract him for me. I need to stop that missile," Chase hissed. Beyal nodded, and spun out Mysticblade—while Drezz retaliated with Afterburn.

The white-haired teen paused. "How do you—?" he started. Chase, however, was already dashing at full-speed towards the missile—right as it launched.

Acting on impulse, Chase leaped up an amazing height and managed to cling onto one of the flight stabilizers. As the rocket-turned-missile switched trajectory from straight up to horizontal, he then thought, _What the krag am I doing?!_

* * *

Jinja had a feeling that Chase was doing something incredibly stupid at the moment. "Five bucks says he's on that missile," Dax muttered, watching it go.

"You're on," Bren said.  
"The two from Forge paused, seeming to be listening to something, and without warning they called their Monsunos back before running off—they saw Drezz on Afterburn flying after them.

Which just left the three from Core-Tech—four when Beyal came on Mysticblade, and five if they counted Sandy—against the two from STORM. "Can I bark at them?" Sandy asked.

"No!" Jinja hissed.

"Is that a dog?" they heard Trey ask.

"C'mon, I didn't say superbark," Sandy went on. "Like a normal bark. I can still do those—I checked. Not to mention…that giant cat's giving me the evil eye." As if to prove it, Driftblade snarled at them—the coyote in particular. Her fur ruffled.

"Fine," Jinja muttered, which issued a barking episode from Sandy.

The distraction proved costly, unfortunately: Whipper was taken out by a well-timed Ballistic Repeater from Riccoshot, and went flying into its core hard enough to send Jinja down.

"You okay Princess?" Dax asked.

"I'm fine—and don't call me that!"

Trey seemed to notice something, and Jinja saw a glint in his eye that she didn't like. "Run 'em down!" he yelled into a communicator.

Puzzled, she glanced to the side—and froze. There was an H-Tram speeding towards them—likely had come with backup…at least until Trey gave that order.

She knew that she shouldn't be worried—Beyal came out of getting hit by a truck unscathed. But that was still a small one, and slowing down.

This was an H-Tram, which was picking up speed. Gritting her teeth, she impulsively closed her eyes and waited for it—

The impact stung, and stars flew across her vision for a few moments. The only sound she heard was metal crunching and glass cracking, and tires squealing against the ground when the vehicle refused to move forward. Judging by the _thud_ she heard, it was a repeat of what happened with the truck.

She opened one eye, and saw that the driver had an airbag in his face, while the two Elites inside were gawking at her. The front of the H-Tram had a decent dent in it, and the headlights were broken, and the windshield was cracked badly.

"Oh boy," she muttered, glancing at her friends. Bren's mouth was twitching a bit, and Dax was open-mouthed. Sandy was staring. Jinja had a good guess on what they were thinking, and she looked towards their two opponents…and it took all her willpower to not burst out laughing.

Trey was staring wide-eyed and with a dumbfounded expression, stuttering random nonsense. Charlemagne was doing pretty much the same thing, except she wasn't stuttering in English. A few moments later she snapped out of it, and then looked quite a bit angry.

"Uh, we better run," Bren said.

"I'm with Glasses," Dax agreed.

"Hey! I don't even have to wear those anymore!"

"Habit."

"Let's just go!" Jinja intervened, shakily standing. "Sandy, superbark!"

"On it!" the coyote yipped, and after giving the others a few moments to get some distance, unleashed her very loud bark.

"That's gonna give 'em a headache," Dax commented.

"Yep," Jinja said, although she wasn't really paying attention. One, she had just screwed them totally, although it was sort of Trey's fault at the same time. Two…they had no idea where Chase was or what he was up to.

Although she had a guess.


End file.
